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V - Open Politics: Unleashing Civil Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2012

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Summary

As Japan rose from the ashes of World War II, liberal intellectuals such as TSURU Shigeto, MARUYAMA Masao and ENDO Shusaku hoped that with its new constitution, Japan would come to represent a new international force for pacifist socialism. However, with the outbreak of the Cold War, the Chinese revolution and the Korean War, the United States had to engage Japan in rapid nation-building. As a result, the initial liberal reforms the American Occupation had instituted were greatly attenuated, and the United States very quickly transformed Japan from its bitterest enemy to its most pampered protégé. As a consequence of shifting its focus to rebuilding the Japanese economy, and its concern for avoiding strong leftist forces in Japan, the United States allowed the postwar Japanese establishment to remain in power and escape fundamental questioning or serious political change. As exemplified by the emperor transitioning from head of state to symbol of the state in the 1946 constitution, postwar Japan developed in a state of amnesia and political quietism. In addition to the emperor never going to trial (Emperor HIROHITO was almost certainly a war criminal), the CIA funneled secret funds to the “Liberal Democratic Party” (LDP, the dominant political party of postwar Japan) to help it defeat more progressive and socialistic political forces.

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Japan's Open Future
An Agenda for Global Citizenship
, pp. 145 - 182
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2009

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